I Heart Strawberries!

 

Strawberries have to be one of my most favorite fruits. In fact, Strawberry Shortcake is indeed my favorite all-time dessert, go figure. Unfortunately, strawberry picking season is well over in my neck of the woods (Maryland). It is, however, just popping up further Northeast in my old neck of the woods (New England).

As a child, I remember going strawberry picking, usually during a class field trip. I remember how big and lush the fields looked and how muddied up our boots and pants would get. One day, I plan to take my kiddies out to a patch and let them have their own experience. But, for now, they'll have to stick to picking strawberries out the produce aisle from the neighborhood Giant grocery store!

Since it was my daughter's idea to make some 'delicious pank (it's really pink, but she picked up a southern accent from my mother-in-law and so....yeah) strawberry cupcakes, with strawberry frosting and a strawberry on top', I thought it would be cute to dub these delicious confections, 'Nikki's Divalicious Pink Strawberry Cupcakes'; anything for my baby girl.

When thinking of creating the perfect strawberry cupcakes, I wanted them to taste as organic as possible. So, I macerated fresh strawberries and pureed them. I then added them to my basic vanilla cupcake recipe hoping they would look pink. Instead, they looked like this:

Not exactly what my dear baby girl requested, but they did have an organic feel to them. Then it occurred to me, when we make the frosting it will definitely be pink and all will be right in the world. Besides, the frosting is my daughter's favorite part anyway - see?

Next, I whipped up a delicious basic buttercream frosting and mixed in finely chopped fresh strawberries and then piped the frosting onto the cupcakes.

I was so excited to take a bite of these babies that I almost forgot the most important thing; The Little Diva reminded me to add the strawberries on top. What a finish! They looked great and tasted soooo good, just like strawberry ice cream. My husband even liked them and he is so not into sweets.

We even had some without strawberries on top - just as good!

I had plenty of extra cupcakes that I shared with my taste testing panel....errr, excuse me my co-workers and got rave reviews. Here is another look at the finished product - too bad you don't have the eater-net!